


Brightly Shone The Moon That Night

by Barb Cummings (Rahirah)



Series: The Barbverse [101]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Christmas, Domestic, F/M, Fluff, Holidays, Kid Fic, Schmoop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-02
Updated: 2012-06-02
Packaged: 2017-11-06 15:58:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/420679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rahirah/pseuds/Barb%20Cummings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Christmas Eve at 1630 Revello Drive.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Brightly Shone The Moon That Night

**Author's Note:**

> This story takes place in the same universe as _A Raising In the Sun_ et al., and contains spoilers for previous works in the series.

"Up, Daddy!"

Vicki points at the top of the tree, imperious, and Spike hoists her up with the promptness befitting her majesty's willing slave. Small hands fumble amid the greenery as their youngest daughter sets the star in place, lips pursed in determination. Like everything Vicki does, it's got to be just so, and when the glittering points fall askew, her frown of concentration goes lumpy, and the white points of her fangs prick pink lips. 

"Here, Princess, let your old Dad give you a hand," Spike says. He shifts her astride his shoulders to free his hands, and Vicki accepts the offer as her due, commanding her obliging servant to set the star "There! No, higher! No, that way!" 

Funny, Buffy thinks, how different they all are: Connie would have brushed aside the offer of help with a ferocious _No! I want to do it myself!_ Alex would have set the star crooked and been perfectly happy with it. Bill would have measured the top of the tree before laying a hand on the star at all. She remembers ornament wars with her sister, back in the day, and it doesn't matter any longer that those memories never really happened. Christmas is a time when what should have happened matters a lot more than what really did. 

"Off, love?" Spike asks as she gathers up her stakes.

"Yup." Buffy stands on tiptoe and plants a quick kiss on his cheek - downpayment for later. "I'll be back by midnight." 

Spike nods; more nocturnal than she even after all these years, he'll take the late shift. Her hand's on the door when Alex says, "Aw, Mom, d'you have to patrol on Christmas eve?" 

"Yeah," Connie chimes in, eager. "I could go. It would be, like, a Christmas present."

Buffy doesn't yet know if her oldest girl will be a Slayer or not, and unlike Connie, she's in no hurry to find out. There's no way in hell her fourteen-year-old daughter is patrolling alone, and no way she's going to start that particular argument on Christmas Eve. But she's saved when Bill looks up from his tablet, adjusts his glasses, and inquires, "Hey, Con, I thought you had a report to finish?" 

Connie groans and buries her head in wrapping paper. "You weren't supposed to tell!" 

Her brother shrugs, grins. "'m evil, sis." 

_Note to self: Extra cinnamon in the pig's blood for Evil Bill._ "Yes, I really have to," she says. "And you'd all better be mainlining visions of sugarplums when I get back, or Santa's skipping a chimney this year." 

And she's off, a shadow among shadows in the chilly December night. It's not far past the longest night of the year, and vampires grow bolder in the endless, sunless hours before dawn. Bold enough, sometimes, to risk shattering the fragile truce she and Spike have brokered with Sunnydale's demon world. Down darkened alleys, across frost-rimed rooftops, wherever they are, the Slayer will be watching, stake in hand. She'd have resented this, once, and it's not like she's looking forward to it tonight. Slayers were never meant to see forty, and she's well past that. (Hard to get worked up about the big four-O when your husband's in triple digits.) But she's got better reason now than ever to stand guard in the long night. 

Christmas, after all, is for the children.

 

**END**


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